In July, 1926, a severe outbreak of a Hemipterous pest was reported from the village of Kattuputhur, in the Trichinopoly District, which threatened the total destruction of the standing paddy crop, and the writer was deputed to visit the locality, investigate the pest and advise suitable control measures. The present paper has been prepared with the object of presenting the results of the investigation made and the remedial measures tried.

The village of Kattuputhur is situated about three miles from Kattalai Railway Station and a mile and a half from the Cauvery River. The affected area is roughly about ten miles long with an average breadth of a mile and a half, and includes numerous villages around Kattuputhur. It is adjoined by a canal from the River Cauvery, giving a never-failing and plentiful supply of water, so that the crops of the area are no longer dependent on the monsoon. As the soil is fertile, intensive cultivation is carried on within this tract, paddy being the principal crop.

The pupal period has been shown to be between three and four times as long during the winter months as it is in the summer months.

Breeding continues the whole year round, but the period of greatest density and activity is in September, i.e., towards the end of the dry season. During a period of heavy rains, long grass and full forest foliage, puparia were fairly abundant, while density counts did not indicate any lack of nourishment. The grass in these mopane belts, however, never grows very long.

All types of forest were used for breeding except the heavy river forest. In the mopane a heavy reduction in density occurred after leaf-fall. At the end of the dry season the dry bed of a small well-shaded stream was used extensively as a breeding place. Heavy thorn thickets (Isinanga) and overgrown dongas were only used as breeding places after most of the leaves had fallen.

The puparia are attacked by at least seven species of insect parasites. Of these Mutilla glossinae and possibly two species of Bombyliids are the most important. These parasites show definite seasonal activity. At the end of the dry season, 84 per cent. of all emergences were parasites.

The percentage of collected puparia which failed to yield either flies or parasites increased from 23 per cent. in March to 60 per cent. in November. Experiments showed that half an hour's exposure to the sun (118° F.), even when covered with about one inch of sand, was sufficient to kill the puparia.

The combined effect of parasitism and the hot summer sun on deposited puparia is no doubt a contributary cause of the great fall in density that occurs throughout mopane forest at the end of the late dry season after leaf-fall is complete. This statement does not necessarily apply to other areas not examined.

This fly belt has continued to spread and game has increased, although the area has been thrown open to free shooting since 1905. Between 1924 and 1925 the spread eastward has been rapid, and new settlement areas have been endangered.

C. B. Williams has shown that at the time of the first picking, i.e., about the second week of September, the extent of attack by Platyedra gossypiella averaged 75 per cent. of the bolls during the years 1916 to 1924, and that at the end of September the percentage had risen to 90–95. He also showed that there is a definite correlation between the date of maturity of the crop and the development of the attack.

Oliarus cocosivora, sp. n. (fig. 1).

Male : length, 3·5 mm. ; tegmen, 4 mm.

Length of vertex along lateral margin twice the width at base ; the areolets reaching nearly to middle of vertex ; base angularly emarginate ; a distinct, fine carina down middle of basal half. The median frontal carina forked at base. The fine carinae of mesothorax distinct. The fork of Sc+R slightly more distad than fork of Cu ; the fork of M1, 2 slightly more basad than fork of M3, 4. The genitalia are figured. The anal segment a little longer than wide. The aedeagus armed with large spines.

Up to 1909, the date of publication of the volume on Chalcididae in the Genera Insectorum, the genus Elasmus, Westw., was considered to be distributed only in Europe and America. In his list of species Schmiedeknecht mentioned only a single Asiatic species, E. anticles, Walk., from India, and no Australian or African species. At that date two other oriental species were already known, the one described, but not named, by Zehntner from Java (1900), and the other from the Philippine Islands, E. philippinensis, Ashmead (1904).

During the course of work on coconut pests in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, from August to October, 1928, I took the opportunity to make a collection of mosquitos. Ten weeks were spent in the country, but most of this time was occupied in travelling round the group on brief visits to many islands, and on only two occasions were more than three days spent in any one locality. It was not possible, therefore, to make anything like an exhaustive collection of the mosquito fauna.

A study of the genitalia of both sexes of the Queensland pink bollworm, Pectinophora scutigera, Holdaway, originally named from the immature stages, has confirmed the validity of the species. Details of a comparative study of the genitalia of this species and Pectinophora gossypiella, Saunders, are given and figured.

Citrus trees in Egypt suffer very severely from the attacks of scale-insects, especially the black scale, Chrysomphalus aonidum, which, when unchecked in its ravages, renders the cultivation of this crop impossible.

The usual method of control is by fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas, which is conducted on a large scale by officers of the Ministry of Agriculture.

1. 138 larvae of Anopheles, Finlaya and Orthopodomyia, collected from three tree-holes described in Part I, were dissected and their contents examined.

2. Small algae, a few animals, bacteria and considerable quantities of rotting vegetation were found in them.

3. The algal and animal food seems to be insufficient for the anabolic processes of the larvae.

4. It is possible that bacteria may play some part in their nutrition, especially of Orthopodomyia.

5. It is also suggested that the larvae are able to utilise any food constituents present in the vegetable debris.

I wish to thank Dr. P. A. Buxton for the interest he has shown during the progress of this work, and Professor F. E. Fritsch for help in identification of the algal species.

For a number of years reports have been received from the banana-growing districts of Central and northern South America of a large white grub occasionally discovered in extensive borings in the base of banana pseudostems. While in the Santa Marta region of Colombia, the writer readily succeeded in rearing the adult, which turned out to be the Castniid moth, Castniomera humboldti (Boisduval), and was able to devote a short time to the study of the insect, discovering not only that it is far more abundant than has been supposed, but also that its presence has a very serious effect on the production of bananas.

These species, together with A. brunnipes, Theo., have been referred to the Neocellia group of the subgenus Myzomyia on account of the broad mesonotal scales, and (in the case of the first two species mentioned) of the broadly white-tipped hind tarsi. The three species, however, differ from the other members of the Neocellia group in the possession of a distinct propleural hair, whereas the other African species (A. maculipalpis, Giles, and A. pretoriensis, Theo.) agree with all the Oriental species of the Neocellia group in having no propleural hair. It is therefore probable that the first three species are to be regarded as members of the Myzomyia group in which the ornamentation is unusually well developed. This conclusion, arrived at from an examination of the adults, is confirmed by a study of the larvae ; Christophers informs me that the larvae of A. theileri, which have been examined by himself and Puri, have pleural hairs of the Myzomyia type. It is also suggestive that A. rufipes and A. theileri are both variable in wing-markings and thoracic scaling, and as in the case of A. marshalli, some variations appear to be definitely fixed. Some of these variations are described below as new varieties.

During the first half of 1927 the writer visited the chief grape-growing districts of Australia to investigate on behalf of the Empire Marketing Board and the Common-wealth Government the insect infestation of dried fruit. The more immediately practical results of this study were published in November 1928 (E.M.B., 12, 36 pp.). On pages 20–22 of that report the question of natural enemies was briefly considered. The present notes describe certain aspects of the behaviour of these natural enemies, with special reference, in the case of the “ parasites,” to oviposition habits. The literature on Microbracon hebetor, Say (Habrobracon juglandis, Ashm.) has grown enormously in the last few years, and the present section on this insect makes no pretence to deal with the mass of literature upon it, nor to summarise our knowledge of its biology. Among more monographic papers on M. hebetor may be mentioned those of Hase (the subject at first determined in error as Habrobracon brevicornis) and Genieys (chiefly morphological). Showell (Jl. Dept. Agric. South Australia, xxxi, 1928, pp. 1048–1056), has recently published an account of the life-history under Australian conditions ; while Schultze (1924) has described its psychology, with special reference to cleaning-habits and antennal movements. Schultze's work I have not seen.

In a previous paper (Bull. Ent. Res., xvi, 1925, p. 143), a general account was given of the conditions encountered in fumigation of citrus trees with hydrocyanic acid gas in Palestine.

Since the opening of the British Mosquito Control Institute, in August 1925, the mosquito control of Hayling Island (initiated in August 1920) has been carried on as part of the research work of the Institute's laboratory.

This work involves the routine examination of the different water-places of the Island throughout the year by an inspector who brings to the laboratory all specimens of mosquito larvae, etc., thus collected. These specimens are identified, recorded in the daily register and finally utilized in various ways ; the larvae remaining in the water-places being subsequently destroyed by appropriate means. The inspector's working year is therefore made up of “ collecting days ” and “ anti-larval days ” ; the time devoted to these two departments of the work being approximately the same.

Descriptions are given of the larvae and pupae of Uranotaenia nigripes, Theo., Hodgesia sanguinis, Theo., H. malayi, Leic. (larva only), Aëdes (Banksinella) punctocostalis, Theo., A. (Aëdimorphus) abnormalis, Theo., A. (A.) tarsalis, Newst., and Ficalbia malfeyti, Newst.

H. sanguinis is remarkable chiefly for the structure of the respiratory trumpets of the pupa, each of which is cleft almost to the base in the form of two leaflets.

The present paper deals with a further 16 species and varieties of Diaspinae of which 9 are believed to be new to science.

In addition to the acknowledgements already made in Part 1 I desire to express my thanks to the Chief Entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, Pretoria, for his kindness in permitting certain authentic material of South African Coccidae from the collections of his Department to be sent to me, and to Mr. H. K. Munro of the same Department for very kindly looking out the material and forwarding it.

The first reference to the existence in Argentina of the parasite that is the subject of the present article appears to be that of Messrs. Rosenfeld & Barber, who, for lack of a more exact determination, referred to it as “ el parásito díptero ” or “ el díptero.” Some time after the appearance of their publication, these entomologists sent specimens to the late Dr. Frederick Knab, who determined them as Sarcophaga ochropyga, van der Wulp ; these specimens had been reared from Diatraea saccharalis, Fabr. (sugar-cane moth borer) at the Tucumán Agricultural Experiment Station, and were later incorporated in the collection of that institution under the “ accession number 47,” and bore labels indicating Dr. Knab's identification.

Brachyurothrips hargreavesi is of interest as the material has enabled me to characterise clearly the genus Brachyurothrips ; Zeugmatothripoides is a new genus related to the recently described neotropical Hystrichothripid genus Zeugmatothrips ; and Hoplandrothrips coffeae is a new coffee thrips causing curled-leaf galls.

I am further able to show that Dolichothrips varipes is in no sense related to Neoheegeria indica, though treated by Karny as a synonym of that species, and to characterise more clearly Gigantothrips gracilis and elegans.

I am indebted to Dr. G. A. K. Marshall, F.R.S., of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, and to the Authorities of the British Museum of Natural History for the bulk of this material, types of which are deposited in the British Museum collections.

The larvae of certain gall midges have been known for a long time to prey on Aphids ; in fact Rondani in 1847 described a midge, now known as Phaenobremia aphidimyza, Rond., whose larvae fed on Aphids on fruit trees. Since this first record, there have been many notes of Aphids being attacked by Cecidomyid larvae, and in some cases the adult midge has been reared and described. Most of the literature consists of mere records of larvae feeding on Aphids or else descriptions of the midges ; in a few cases biological notes are added. So far as the writer knows there are only two papers that are devoted to a study of midges as a potential natural control of Aphids. Further work is badly needed to find out whether midge larvae can, or do, act as control agents. There have been vague statements that Aphids in certain outbreaks have been controlled by the midge larvae, but so far there have been no exact proofs based on counts of numbers of Aphids killed, fecundity of midge compared with Aphid, the appetite of the midge larvae, etc.